Send me email updates about messages I've received
on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.By signing up, you certify that
you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.

How to plan a wedding/reception that starts at 330pm?

I don't want to feed them supper. Call me a tight wad but that money is for my family and our honeymoon, not so that everyone will be impressed with the wedding (our vows should be impressive enough).
SIL is being a DJ, MIL and mom will be helping with finger foods, thinking open bar.
UGH! I didn't want to plan this (too tight to pay a consultant) so give me some ideas on how to keep this simple and not last into the wee hours of morning. Oh, and it's for @ 100 ppl.

I didnt really have to plan on my own thank God. My mil did hire a wedding planner and she helped with my mom do everything. Before that though we looked into a caterer. It really wasnt going to cost much. Our wedding was at 1pm FYI so after lunch but before dinner and reception started around 3pm. The catrerers set everything up and were going to charge us anywhere from $6 a person to $15 depending on what we chose to do. I ended up renting a hall at a restaurant and did a limited menu and fed everyone from that.

Well first of all an open bar with only finger foods is NOT a good idea, everyone will be even drunker than normal at a reception without a meal to help absorb the booze. Is it a formal wedding ceremony? If it is proper ettiquette is to have a formal reception with a meal, to do otherwise is tacky. People come to a wedding and bring a gift or a check for the bride and groom, they should be served a MEAL as a thank you for coming and shelling out money, their time, gas to get there, buying clothes to wear, etc etc.

When my husband and I got married the entire wedding and reception with a fully catered meal (with choice of prime rib, chicken florentine and salmon) was only $4,000! And it was at one of the "upper class" banquet/reception halls in our area! It is possible to give people a great memorable reception with a full dinner AND open bar and not clean out the bank!!!

You could have a light buffet, serve relatively inexpensive champagne, lots of great appetizers, and cake:) Even nicer, have it in your yard or a borrowed yard (mom's?) , and decorate it with potted or hanging flowering plants. The marriage is the important part, the wedding is just salt on the egg:) Have fun!